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It’s that time of year when many bands are announcing summer tours, unveiling multi-month stretches that pick up around Memorial Day and ease up sometime just after Labor Day, cross-crossing, and sometimes even zig-zagging, this country or another. New England guitar-rock duo When Particles Collide are taking this tradition to rather extreme measures, today (May 1) revealing an ambitious 14-month touring project that starts up in June and concludes sometime next summer.
And hell, if things go well, it just may never end at all.
“It’s been six-and-a-half years of being in a band, and I think Chris [Viner, drummer] and I realized being on the road and playing and meeting people is what we love more than anything else,” says guitarist and singer Sasha Alcott. “And if you know something to be true, then I guess you just figure out how to make it work.”
Part of making it work found Alcott quitting her job as a high school chemistry teacher, a position she has had for 18 years, following in the steps of Viner, who left his full-time job a few years back. The band says they have shows for June, July, and August booked, and know the route of their North American tour for the next four months. Viner tells Vanyaland the duo will likely only be “home” — in their hometown of Bangor, Maine, and current residence of Exeter, New Hampshire — for holidays and local shows.
“It’s going to be quite an adventure,” adds Alcott.
In addition to pulling in money from shows and merch, When Particles Collide have also unveiled a crowdfunding campaign to help keep them on the road. Fans of the band can donate through four channels — for meals, for hotels, for gas, and through a “tip jar” — through their homepage, whenparticlescollide.com, with rewards ranging from exclusive new music, behind the scenes tour footage, access to new merchandise, and other perks that come along on the road.
Watch the band’s full pitch video below, and send them off this Friday (May 5) when they play the Greek American Club in Somerville alongside Chrissy Vaccaro, Jess Collins, Jenn Lombari, and Leesa Coyne.
Featured When Particles Collide video up top by Joshua Pickering Photography.